Lotteries

News about Lotteries, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Jul. 14, 2015

Officials in Van Meter, Iowa, cancel raffle to raise money for new police car that would have given winner permission to use Taser stun gun on a city official. MORE

Jun. 5, 2015

Anthony Perosi, Staten Island plumber, wins $136 million in New York State Powerball lottery. MORE

Mar. 26, 2015

At least 10 of 44 states with lotteries have considered over past few years whether winners should be allowed to collect their money without having their names disclosed publicly; North Carolina legislative panel debates, but rejects, proposal to keep lottery winners' names secret. MORE

Aug. 31, 2014

Growing number of credit unions and nonprofit groups, seeking to encourage savings among low-income families, are establishing prize-linked savings accounts that emulate the appeal of lotteries; accounts essentially treat every deposit as a ticket in a prizewinning raffle, offering thrill of gambling without the risk. MORE

Aug. 4, 2014

Andrew Adam Newman Advertising column; campaign from Ohio Lottery focuses on instant gratification some players get merely from scratching tickets, rather than prizes and winning normally featured prominently in ads. MORE

May. 27, 2014

Studies show that winning lottery may result in temporary dip in psychological well-being as winner adjusts but ultimately leads to psychological boost and overall happiness, giving lie to long-held notion of a lottery curse. MORE

Apr. 20, 2014

Slovakia has introduced a new lottery to encourage average citizens to collect receipts from their purchases and register them with the government, creating paper trail for transactions and forcing business owners to pay any sales taxes they owe; those who register their receipts get a chance to win prizes; move comes as Slovakia's revenue from value-added taxes has declined. MORE

Feb. 6, 2014

Winner of $1 million Powerball sold in the Bronx misses deadline for cashing ticket, and it expires without anyone stepping forward to claim it; ticket is one of five second-place Powerball tickets worth $1 million each that were purchased in 2013 and have yet to be claimed in New York State; workers in Bronx store that sold winning ticket say many Bronx lottery ticket winners lose opportunities by not checking their tickets. MORE

Jan. 15, 2014

Lotteries, usually considered part of the problem, could in fact be part of the solution. MORE

Nov. 8, 2013

Andrew Adam Newman Advertising column examines new campaign from the New York Lottery that promotes more modest scratch-off games by portraying winners who are not that rich. MORE

Aug. 10, 2013

Odds of winning top prize in Powerball, which is now up to $448 million, is infinitesimal: chance is 1 in 175 million; millions of people spent $5.9 billion on Powerball alone and nearly $69 billion on all lottery games in 2012. MORE

Aug. 9, 2013

Two of three winning tickets in $448 million Powerball jackpot were sold in New Jersey, including one in coastal town of Little Egg Harbor, which was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy. MORE

Jul. 7, 2013

Scratch-off lottery tickets, cards covered with waxy coating that hide possible cash prize, were popularized in 1970s by John Koza and Dan Bower, who transformed a supermarket promo card into a product for state lottery commissions. MORE

Jun. 6, 2013

Gloria C Mackenzie, 84-year-old woman from Florida, comes forward to claim $590 million Powerball jackpot, becoming largest sole lottery winner in the history of American lotteries. MORE

May. 9, 2013

Yalcin Nergiz, Yuniz Ozturk and Orhan Ozturk are arrested for cashing $74,892 winning lottery ticket belonging to Guatemalan immigrant Marvin Choy Nij; two of the men are clerks at gas station in Long Island, NY, where Nij came to claim his prize and was told it was only worth $774. MORE

Mar. 26, 2013

Pedro Quezada, immigrant from Dominican Republic, claims winning $388 million Powerball jackpot in Passaic, NJ; payout is fourth-largest jackpot in Powerball history. MORE

Feb. 21, 2013

New York Gov Andrew M Cuomo's plan to remove the last remaining restrictions on where Quick Draw lottery game can be played revives debate over state-sanctioned gambling; critics argue that Quick Draw, like other forms of gambling, extracts money from people who can least afford to risk it, while also fostering gambling addiction; proposal would allow small stores to offer Quick Draw and players as young as 18 to play game in bars. MORE

Jan. 12, 2013

Judge grants prosecutors permission to exhume body of Urooj Khan, Chicago man who was poisoned with cyanide just as he was about to collect a $425,000 lottery prize. MORE

Jan. 3, 2013

Thais, who often mix superstition with a proclivity for fun, play country's underground lottery with numbers gleaned from calamity, believing that disaster can beget good fortune. MORE

Dec. 1, 2012

Joe Nocera Op-Ed column, in light of $588 million Powerball jackpot shared by two lucky ticket holders, investigates why so many lottery winners end up broke after only a few years. MORE

Nov. 29, 2012

Powerball jackpot of $579.9 million, second largest lottery prize in United States history, is drawn; Americans across the recession-weary country lined up for tickets for their chance at the winnings; tickets sold in Missouri and Arizona matched all six numbers; winning numbers were 5, 16, 22, 23, 29 and a Powerball of 6. MORE

Nov. 14, 2012

New York State Lottery officials say brothers Andy Ashkar and Nayel Ashkar lied to a customer at their parents' Syracuse convenience store, telling the holder of a winning $5 million New York State scratch-off lottery ticket that it was worth only $5,000, and then attempted to cash in the ticket for themselves; both have been charged with attempted grand larceny. MORE

Apr. 1, 2012

Mega Millions announces winning tickets for the record-breaking $640 million lottery were bought in Illinois, Kansas and Maryland; Americans spent nearly $1.5 billion on tickets. MORE

Mar. 17, 2012

Testimony from Perfeito Esteves, a co-worker of New Jersey lottery winner Americo Lopes, proved crucial to verdict that split Lopes's $17,433,966 windfall; Lopes, who insisted that the winning ticket came from his own money and was not purchased in a group pool, was sued by co-workers with whom he had been sharing costs of weekly tickets. MORE

Mar. 15, 2012

Jury in Union County, NJ, says Mega Millions jackpot winner Americo Lopes has to share the $38.5 million in winnings with the five members of his betting pool; when he won in November 2009 he told no one except lottery officials and cashed in the ticket as if it were his alone. MORE

Mar. 8, 2012

Five New Jersey construction workers are suing longtime colleague Americo Lopes, accusing him of cashing in a winning lottery ticket that belonged to all of them; Lopes argues that he purchased the $38.5 million winning Mega Millions ticket separately, using his own money, and that the winnings should be his alone. MORE

Feb. 14, 2012

Op-Ed article by Prof Richard H Thaler describes growing trend of world governments using positive reinforcement to encourage good citizenship; notes that several governments have initiated lotteries and prize drawings to address problems ranging from pet waste in the streets to tax evasion; notes that this reward system is far underused in comparison to standard practices of exhortation and fines. MORE

Feb. 9, 2012

Financial planners warn that managing a financial windfall can be a stressful, hazardous undertaking that must be navigated with great care to avoid wasting a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; beneficiaries of a substantial payday, like a lottery winner, heir to an estate or a shareholder that goes public, may suddenly confront a wide range of unfamiliar life choices. MORE

Feb. 1, 2012

Sodeto Journal; all but one household in the village of Sodeto, Spain, hold a piece of a winning ticket in the country's Christmas lottery first prize of $950 million; the villagers' good fortune has a downside, however, drawing salespeople, bankers and other fortune seekers who aim to separate the villagers from their winnings. MORE

Dec. 4, 2011

Jesse Kornbluth Loose Ends column humorously empathizes with the three Greenwich, Conn, investment bankers who won the lottery. MORE

A jury has begun deliberations in the case of a lottery security officer who allegedly fixed the Hot Lotto game in 2010 to get himself a winning ticket for a $14 million jackpot and then attempted to cash it anonymously.